1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to N-chloro-N-methyl glucamine and N-chloro-N-methyl glucamine esters, and their use as agents for water disinfection and as mild oxidizing agents for the radiolabeling of oxidation-sensitive organic molecules.
2. Description of the Related Art
Chloramines are widely known as useful water disinfecting agents. Among the most popular chloramine water disinfecting agents is halazone (p-N,N-dichlorosulfamylbenzoic acid). While effective, halazone suffers from some important disadvantages, including its strong, unpleasant chlorine odor, its sensitivity to light, its relatively low solubility in water, and, perhaps most importantly, the formation of potentially carcinogenic chlorinated hydrocarbons which are generated as the result reaction with impurities commonly found in water supplies. In view of these disadvantages, it should be apparent that there still exists a need in the art for improved water disinfecting agents.
Chloramines, in particular chloramine-T (CAT) are frequently used in the radiolabeling of organic molecules by halogenation, for example, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,424,402 ("the '402 patent"), the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. According to the method of the '402 patent an organic molecule may be radiolabeled by reaction with .sup.125 I.sub.2. Normally, the .sup.125 I.sub.2 is released from its sodium salt by oxidation with chloramine-T. The disadvantage of this procedure is that residual CAT in the reaction mixture frequently causes oxidative decomposition of the organic molecule rendering the procedure useless. There exists a need for a mild oxidizing agent that is capable of releasing molecular halogens from their salts without oxidizing organic molecules to be labeled.
N-methyl glucamine is known in the prior art as a solubilizing agent in the formulation of intravenous pharmaceuticals, enabling high concentrations of pharmaceuticals to be administered. However, prior to the present invention the particular substituted glucamines of the present invention, and their use in the purification of water, was not known.